We Build Bots was founded in August 2017 and has gone on to achieve a valuation of £2 million. The tech firm, which develops customer service chatbots, has already raised 50 per cent of its funding goal.

The company’s flagship product, IntelAgent, provides customer service departments with the ability to analyse conversation data taken from chatbots.

It’s the brainchild of Paul Shepherd, who founded digital agency Coup Media. Last year, the company was named one of Europe’s leading start-ups by Web Summit, and it also reached the final of the Oracle Global Cloud Accelerator.

Speaking about his business and funding campaign, Shepherd said: “IntelAgent is helping companies across the utilities, automotive, charity and publishing sectors save money, make money and better engage with their customers.

“We’re delighted with how quickly we’ve reached 50% of our target raise, and we look forward to scaling our sales, development and data teams once the round is closed.”

In October 2017, the company created a chatbot for Sport Wales to help fitness enthusiasts find the best gym facilities. At the time, Paul said: “It’s great to see Welsh Sport adopting the latest technologies in their quest to get more people active with sports.

“And as a fellow Welsh business, we’re delighted to be involved. Whilst this is a fun, light-hearted bot we hope this proves to be an invaluable asset if more people become more active as a result.

He’s also a big believer in instant messaging platforms and the potential they offer for artificial intelligence technology. Shepherd said: “Messenger platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp are hugely popular.

“We anticipate a huge demand from millennials and centennials for connecting with organisations and businesses this way and that as a result chatbot use will continue to grow connecting people to information quicker than ever.”